Auckland City Skyline at Night

Pin It Now! The city skyline from above the northern motorway.

Auckland Harbour Bridge From Westhaven Marina

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The Harbour Bridge is one of those features that make Auckland, ‘Auckland’. Like a few other bridges around the world, you can go for a nice and maybe not so leisurely walk up it. If you are feeling a bit more adventurous you can chose to bungy jump off it. These photos were taken from Westhaven Marina which is one of the largest marinas in the Southern Hemisphere.

A couple more photos taken from different angles (click on images for large view):

Life Is Just A Pyramid Scheme

Pin It Now! After having lunch in the city I found myself at Pt. Erin Park and decided to go for a walk around it. I ended up on a path along the side of the park that lead me to the point where Shelly Beach Road crosses over SH1. That is were I found this piece of ‘art’ hidden from public view. I wonder what this artist meant by saying "life is just a pyramid scheme?"

Cockle Shell After Shell at Cockle Bay

Pin It Now! Taking a walk along the beach from Sandspit Yacht Club to Cockle Bay you find yourself walking on nothing but cockle shells for a large part of it. I guess this is why they call that area Cockle Bay.

Boat Launch at Sandspit Yacht Club

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Now and then I go for walks around the place and sometimes I take a camera along with me. The other day I found myself walking past the Sandspit Yacht Club. It was interesting to see people going about their own business at the beach. Some were fishing, some were cleaning their boats and others were doing nothing at all besides relaxing on their boats and enjoying the weather.

A Flame Lily

Pin It Now! I was in Zimbabwe a few months ago and happened to be there at a time when Flame Lily’s were blooming. This flower is so simple and has basic colours but there was something about it that just captivated me.

Auckland City Sky Tower at Night

Pin It Now! Here is a photo of the Sky Tower at night with a very bright moon in the background. This photo really doesn't do justice as to how spectacular it looked that night. Using an SLR instead of a simple point and shot camera would have made a big difference.

Jetstar Airbus A320-232 Landing at Auckland International Airport

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(click on image for large view)

A Jetstar Airbus A320-232 (aircraft registration number VH-VQF) flight from Christchurch landing in Auckland. This airline did not get off to a good start when they commenced domestic services and got a number of complaints. It is one of those airlines that if you are a minute or two late for check-in, you can forget about getting on the flight.

Air Pacific Boeing 767-300ER Landing at Auckland International Airport

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(click on image for large view)

Air Pacific Boeing 767-300ER (aircraft registration number DQ-FJC) coming in for landing at Auckland International on its way from Nadi. Right about now, getting on a plane and spending a few days in Fiji and enjoying the sun does not sound like a bad idea; if only!

Air New Zealand Boeing 737-3U3 Landing at Auckland International Airport

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(click on image for large view)

Air New Zealand Boeing 737-3U3 (aircraft registration number ZK-SJC) landing at Auckland International Airport. One point of interest for airline enthusiast out there is that this particular aircraft was leased out to and flew the skies as Freedom Air (an Air New Zealand subsidiary) which ceased operations in early 2008.

Thai Airways Boeing 777-200ER Landing at Auckland International Airport

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(click on image for large view)

A Thai Airways Boeing 777-200ER (aircraft registration number HS-TJU) arriving at Auckland International on its way in from Bangkok.

How To Add Large Photos To Blogger/Blogspot Posts

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One thing that I have wondered about for a while but never bothered to actually figure out how to do on Blogger was adding nice and large photos to posts. I did a bit of hunting around and there are plenty of tutorials out there on how to do it. The problem I had with most if not all of them was that they were too fiddly. They all entailed making changes to the HTML code and/or doing a bit of experimentation to see what would work best with your template.

I found a solution that is a whole lot easier and doesn’t involve messing around with any HTML or doing any experimentation. All that you need to know is the width of your post body so that you can set your images to the appropriate width. The solution to adding large images to Blogger posts is Windows Live Writer. Setting it up and using it to write posts and resize images to what you want them to be is so simple. Here is what you do:

1. Setup Windows Live Writer and add your blog

2. Write your post and then add the image by clicking on ‘Insert’

3. To resize the image, select it and in the taskpane, under the ‘Advanced’ tab you will find size option. Here, you can set the specific height and width you would like your photos to be. I simply put in width of about 500 (sometimes a bit more) which fits well with my template and that’s it. Just make sure that ‘Lock ratio’ is selected if you are only going to change the width and want the image to resize proportionately.

There are a few other things that you can do with Windows Live Writer which you can discover as go. Now you know an easy way of adding large images to your Blogger posts!